By Eurohoops Team / info@eurohoops.net
After losing to Zalgiris Kaunas in Lithuania in Game 4, Olympiacos Pireaus has been eliminated from the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague competition.
Coach Ioannis Sfairopoulos congratulated Zalgiris, but he also commented on Olympiacos’ injuries throughout this season.
“I want to congratulate Zalgiris, They played much better in the series and deserved to qualify for the final four. It was very important Game 1, we lost the home court advantage and lost the advantage we tried to get these nine months in the EuroLeague regular season. It was challenging to win in Kaunas in this kind of atmosphere, we tried to force a Game 5, but we could not do it. We had a lot of injury problems. One week before the playoffs, we played two Greek league games and did not play with four players. We had a new injury in Game 1 as Milutinov and Bogris faced knee problems, and the players that came back were not ready to play. This disorganized our team and the roles. We were out of shape after one month with injured players. I don’t have any complaints from my players; they tried the best, especially the injured players. They played with their own desire even though the doctors did not clear them to play. If we had won the first two games, we could have played the fifth one in Greece. Zalgiris played better and deserved to qualify. Not only because of the playoffs but also because of the regular season, they were stable throughout.”
He also commented on why Zalgiris beat Olympiacos five times this year: “I don’t want to underestimate Zalgiris, but in all games, we played with injuries. If you have one team with 12 players and 3-4 players miss the game, then the story is different.”
Finally, he stated that Zalgiris could make some noise in the Final Four: “They have a very solid team. I don’t think they will have pressure this is already a successful season for them. With this underdog title, they can do great things.”
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